Cabbies’ income spikes amidst winter’s tourist rush

Winter is the peak tourist season in Rovaniemi. The city’s cabbies, too, are busy ferrying tourists, day in day out, earning a lot more than in the rest of the year.

“We get many international tourists during the winter and our earnings go up at this time,” Kuusipuro Petri, a taxi driver, told the Daily Finland, adding that a huge number of Asian tourists are found to use taxis in this season.

In the recent years, lured mainly by Santa Claus, the unique Christmas activities, northern lights, and the pristine Lappish nature, tourists in ever-increasing number have been thronging Rovaniemi from across the globe in winter.

“About half of the clients in the winter season are foreign tourists,” said Rovaniemen Taksipalvelu Oy Director Tuomas Palmgren.

Juha Hotti, managing director of Rovaniemen Aluetaksi Oy, seconded Palmgren, saying the number of taxi trips during this peak season has been describing a sharp rise. So, the taxi companies have been taking special measures to cope with the extra demand.

“We employ more drivers in winter season. Our company also has a separate service entirety for incentives and tour operator customers,” said Palmgren.

Juha Hotti said, “Through us, we can subscribe to the order logs, but larger cars must be ordered elsewhere.” But how do the cabbies deal with so many foreign tongues?

According to the city’s taxi companies, their drivers are trained well to communicate with their passengers in English. “We do not face much problem in dealing with international tourists. In our company, all drivers are English speaking. Most international tourists speak at least English,” said Palmgren.

Juha Hotti, however, said the language issue can become a challenging one, if the passengers cannot speak English. “If the customers speak English, there are no problems. But, for other languages, the issue is more challenging.”

And, again, it is assumed that the increase in foreign tourists translates into a good amount of tips for the cabbies. Petri, who has been driving taxi in Rovaniemi for the last 29 years, said, “Offering tips is unusual in Finland, but sometimes we do get two or three euros extra from the tourists.”

On this topic, Palmgren said, “Sometimes clients give tips, sometimes not. Chinese tourists are not any different in that way.”

Hotti, however, said there is little option for tips, as all payments pass through the payment terminal and customers are always given a receipt for payment.

Both the company owners agreed that the earnings of the drivers do go up during this peak tourism season.